


all that you've ever known

by buddhaghost



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Curse Marks, Drawing parallels, Emotions, Episode Related, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Protectiveness, Sakra is so done w creepy men putting curse marks on her teammates, Spoilers, yay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:21:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29264193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buddhaghost/pseuds/buddhaghost
Summary: “It’s impossible for me to say anything about Lord Danzo,” he says in that level, level tone of his. “Because of this.”Sakura and Naruto watch as Sai closes his eyes and opens his mouth, sticking his tongue out. Sakura has half a mind to grab it and rip it from Sai’s skull until her brain catches up with her eyes.There’s a mark on Sai’s tongue, made up of five thick black bands. Naruto inhales sharply next to her, and Sakura feels the words she’d been itching to say die in her throat.---in which Sakura reacts a little differently when Sai reveals his curse mark
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Sai & Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 7
Kudos: 177





	all that you've ever known

**Author's Note:**

> so i kind of wanted more of a reaction from naruto and sakura when sai reveals his curse mark from danzo... so I wrote this
> 
> some dialogue is taken directly from the subtitles of the ep, so if you recognize it that's why

“Sai!”

The boy in question is walking towards them, looking down, but he stills and raises his eyes when Sakura calls out to him. She and Naruto skid to a stop a few paces away, her heart racing, both from the run and from the news.

Tsunade, comatose, relieved from her position as Hokage, with Danzo stepping in to take over. And as his first action as Hokage, declaring Sasuke as a rogue ninja… she shudders involuntarily at what Kakashi-sensei had said when Kiba had told them the news. How Sasuke should’ve been eliminated a long while ago.

Danzo would like that, she thinks. He did send Sai to assassinate Sasuke back on their first mission altogether, after all.

Sai is looking at them with his usual neutral expression, waiting. _Like a perfect soldier_ , Sakura thinks bitterly, even though logically, she knows it’s not fair. _Like a puppet_.

“We were just looking for you,” she says, her voice hard.

“We need to talk,” Naruto adds.

“What is it?” Sai asks, and his voice is pleasant, like always, body deceptively loose and causal. But Sakura knows shinobi well enough by now, knows _Sai_ well enough by now to see that he’s anything but.

A slight breeze picks up, displacing the surface of the water to their left and lifting a strand of the boy’s dark hair from his headband, the light catching on the symbol of the Hidden Leaf. The village they live to protect. _The village that Sasuke abandoned_.

Inexplicably, anger courses through her, anger at the sight of Sai and his stupid dark hair that’s just a shade off from Sasuke’s, his expanse of pale, pale, skin, his unreadable expressions, his _blankness_. The fact that he is here, wearing the symbol of the Hidden Leaf and standing across from her and Naruto, while Sasuke is not.

_Why_ , Sakura wants to scream. _Why were we not enough for you to stay?_

“Tell us what you know about Danzo,” she demands.

Sai stiffens. Anyone else wouldn’t have noticed, Sakura thinks, and it’s so imperceptible that she’s not even sure if Sai himself is aware of it, how he subtly shifts his weight into his heels, shoulders tensing. As if expecting a fight. And some part of her is fiercely _glad_ for it, glad that Sai recognizes that she and Naruto will do anything to get Sasuke back. Glad that he perceives them as a threat.

But still, he doesn’t react. Doesn’t say anything, just continues to stare at them with those blank eyes.

A moment passes. “ _Sai_!” Naruto growls.

“That’s impossible,” Sai says finally, voice light and even, like they’ve asked him to read with his eyes closed. _Impossible_. He’d brushed the request off without a second thought, like they don’t matter. Like _Sasuke_ doesn’t matter.

But that’s just the thing with Sai, Sakura thinks, acidic. Even after all this time, he still doesn’t get it. Doesn’t understand how important Sasuke is to them.

“What do you mean?” She snaps. “Don’t tell me you’re working for him again!”

“No, that’s not it,” Sai says, and Sakura tightens her hands into fists, trembling with pent-up rage and desperation and anger, because they _need_ answers if they’re going to save Sasuke and if Sai isn’t going to help them willingly, then she’ll just beat what she wants to know out of him.

Words laced with poison dance on her tongue, but before she can spit them out, Sai continues. “It’s impossible for me to say anything about Lord Danzo,” he says in that level, level tone of his. “Because of this.”

Sakura and Naruto watch as Sai closes his eyes and opens his mouth, sticking his tongue out. Sakura has half a mind to grab it and rip it from Sai’s skull until her brain catches up with her eyes.

There’s a mark on Sai’s tongue, made up of five thick black bands. Naruto inhales sharply next to her, and Sakura feels the words she’d been itching to say die in her throat.

“What… what the hell is that?” Naruto asks, voice notably softer than it had been moments ago.

“Is it a curse mark?” Sakura asks, even though she already knows the answer. The thought of it makes something uncomfortable churn in her stomach, something different from her worry for Tsunade and despair for Sasuke. Curse marks… the last time she’d seen something like this had been during their first chuunin exams, when Sasuke… when Orochimaru…

She can’t even let herself think about it, because when she does, all she can do is wonder how things would’ve turned out differently if she’d just been a little faster, a little stronger, a little _less like useless baggage_. If she’d had even _half_ the skill and strength that she has now… maybe Sasuke would never have been claimed by Orochimaru. Maybe he’d still be here, standing with her and Naruto right now.

“Yes, it’s a curse mark,” Sai is saying, affirming Sakura’s fears with the same tone one might use to make a remark about the weather. “Placed by Lord Danzo himself.”

Clarity, cold and sharp and bright, rushes over Sakura, and she blinks, stumbling back a step. She’d always thought Sai and Sasuke held similar physical resemblances, but now this…

Both boys carry a mark they have no control over, a mark given to them by someone else. Sakura had always thought of Sasuke’s curse mark as more of a brand, a declaration of ownership by Orochimaru. It had been given without his consent, leaving him with uncontrollable power. And now Sai, revealing his mark without a second thought. Why hadn’t he pointed it out before? Does he just see it as a part of himself? Why hadn’t they known about this? Why hadn’t they _asked_?

Sasuke and Sai are two sides of the same coin, Sakura realizes, feeling so, so cold. Both controlled by the wills of others, even though they may not see it.

Yes, Sakura wishes Sasuke were here, wishes that things hadn’t turned out this way, that he’d never left the village in the first place. But she can’t help but wonder, where would that leave Sai?

Sai is still speaking, and Sakura forces herself to look up from where she’d been staring at his mouth. The image of the curse mark branded on his tongue is stark in her mind, and she focuses on Sai’s face instead, on his delicate features, his high cheekbones, his blank eyes framed by dark lashes.

“If I start to talk about Lord Danzo, my entire body will grow numb,” he explains. “I won’t be able to talk or move.”

That’s how Sakura’s feeling right about now. Judging by Naruto’s frozen, horrified expression, he shares the sentiment.

“This is true of all who belong to Root,” Sai adds, and it sounds like a dismissal. Like acceptance. Like he’s never known anything different.

There’s something twisting in Sakura’s stomach, vile and dark and angry but this time it’s not directed at Sai. It fills her, and her fists tighten to the point of trembling, knuckles and tendons straining and she wants to _smash Danzo into the ground_ , to bury him so deep that he’ll never be able to claw his way back out.

Sai has that expression that she’s come to hate, the empty smile coupled with the upturned eyes and tilted head, the one she knows he uses because he thinks it puts others at ease. It’s been a while since she’s seen him use it, and it just makes the anger in her gut roar even louder. There’s a rushing in her ears, drowning all else out.

Is this a bit like what Naruto feels, when the tails start to come out? This uncontrollable, all-consuming _rage_?

“Danzo is quite a cautious man,” Sakura says, and she barely recognizes her own voice, quiet and controlled and packed with so much vitriol that it burns. Because Sai, her _teammate_ , her _friend_ , has just told her that he will become paralyzed if he is to speak a word about Danzo. Sai, who doesn’t understand human interaction, who holds himself with the grace of a trained killer, who sees himself as no more than a weapon, a tool to be used. Sai, who has never known normal, who grew up in the darkness of Danzo’s shadow and who thinks it is _acceptable_ to carry a curse mark preventing him from speaking about his superior.

She doesn’t quite know what Sai’s life was like before he joined their team. But she’s _pretty fucking certain_ that if Danzo places a curse mark on his subordinates to keep them from talking, it wasn’t anything good.

“Indeed,” Sai agrees. “Much of what he has done – what he does – is in effort to protect the village. These secrets cannot be revealed.”

Secrets such as brainwashing and raising child soldiers? Sakura wants to grab Sai by his bony shoulders and shake some sense into him, because she needs him to understand that this is not normal. That a good leader would never force a curse mark onto their followers. Would inspire loyalty through support and respect, not fear tactics. Sakura can only imagine how old Sai must’ve been when he’d received it, what he’s gone through. Root is still a mystery to her, but she’s pretty sure she won’t like what she’ll find if she does dig in deeper.

“Sakura,” Naruto’s voice cuts through the red haze of her thoughts. “Are you okay? You’re shaking.”

Huh. He’s right. Sakura lifts her hands, taking in their trembling as a strange sense of calm washes over her. Sai and Naruto just watch, silent, as she spins on her heel and stalks towards the nearest tree. Taking a deep breath, she pulls her arm back before punching the trunk with everything in her.

The tree _explodes_ , and with it her rage is replaced with a calm sort of lucidity. Like there’s been a film over her eyes until now, and she can finally see everything in clear definition.

She turns back to Sai and Naruto. Naruto’s jaw is half-way to the ground as he gestures between Sakura and where the tree once stood, wordlessly asking what the hell just happened. And Sai… Sai is watching her with a strange look in his eye, his lips parted slightly in what Sakura can only define as _surprise_.

“Where is Danzo,” she demands, approaching the boys again.

“Sa – Sakura, you can’t just _kill him_ ,” Naruto squawks. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it, but…”

Sai dips his head. “Lord Danzo is never alone,” he murmurs, and she can read between the lines, pick up on the true message. _It won’t be easy_.

Sakura tosses her head, cracking her knuckles. That release had felt _good_. It doesn’t matter how many people Danzo has with him; he’s fucked with not just one but _two_ of her teammates. She can’t just let that slide.

“That makes two of us,” she says, a sharp smile cutting through her face. “Right?”

Naruto crosses his arms, grin in place. She used to think that he was cheeky, childish in his optimism, but now she knows better. Can see the hardened glint in his blue eyes, the darkening of the whiskers adorning his cheeks, the sharp canines giving the charming smile a more feral look.

Naruto nods at this, making a noise of affirmation, and Sakura knows that he’d follow her to the end of the earth, just like she’d follow him, just like they both follow Sasuke, and her heart swells with emotion so powerful it threatens to choke her.

There’s a slight noise, a clearing of the throat, and Sakura whips her gaze to Sai. He’s eyes are trained at the ground, but his gaze is far away. “Right,” he says softly. Then, he blinks, and brings his eyes to meet Sakura’s. They’re no longer empty; the gray holds depth, glinting and sharp like a kunai. “Not alone,” he clarifies, voice growing stronger.

Sakura smiles, and the emotion inside her softens into something more manageable, but no easier to identify. It’s _warmthstrengthloveapprecaition_ , and she wonders if this is how lost Sai feels when trying to identify emotions.

Sai will never cease to amaze her, she thinks. Sai, who had his whole life stolen from him the moment he was initiated into Root, who has a curse mark on his tongue and possesses incredible fighting skills but lacks any sort of knowledge of human interaction but tries so hard and yet remains so starkly _alone._ Sakura doesn’t know how she didn’t see it before. She and Naruto had been so caught up in chasing Sasuke that they hadn’t even _seen_ Sai.

Not anymore. That’s going to change _right now_. Because yes, she’s doing this for Sasuke, because it’s not going to be some random tracker nin who get to hunt Sasuke down. That role is for _her and Naruto_ , nobody else.

But she’s also doing this for Sai, because Danzo has _no right_ to control life the way he does. That ends, now.

“Good,” Sakura declares. “Now, I have some _words_ for Danzo.”

Sai’s eyes widen slightly, and she wonders what he sees in her right now. Eyes blazing, knuckles throbbing, a razor-sharp smile cutting across her face. She probably looks mad, but Sakura finds she doesn’t care.

Nobody messes with her team, and that’s a fact. It’s time Danzo is made aware of that.

**Author's Note:**

> and then they go beat danzo up lmao. idk i havent watched past this ep but that would be nice i think
> 
> thank you for reading ! :)


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